Bradley’s impact already evident in Chicago.

He had years of success at Princeton before coming to (Washington) D.C. United
as chief assistant, helping the Washington franchise under Bruce Arena to two
straight Major League Soccer titles. His name frequently came up when coaching
vacancies developed, particularly in New York.

He went to Chicago this year to handle the expansion Fire and already has made
an impact.

It hasn't been an easy haul -- he probably would prefer a 4-4-2 formation but
uses 3-5-2 due to personnel -- and the season isn't even a third completed.
However, the team (4-5) reached a milestone last night with a dramatic victory,
3-1, against Los Angeles, ending the Galaxy's 15-game regular-season winning streak.

A pre-game decision to stress offense was pivotal in the outcome. "We are
making strikes towards being a good team, not being considered an expansion team,"
Bradley said. "We got into the game right away and attacked quite a bit. We weren't
on our heels defending. We didn't want to play a wide-open game with L.A., but we
still played an aggressive, attacking game."

The four other starters are internationals, not from Latin America, where
MLS prefers to concentrate.
* Defender Lubos Kubik, Czech Republic, outstanding.
* Midfielder Peter Nowak, Poland, a candidate for MVP.
* Midfielder/forward Roman Kosecki, Poland, solid but should be better.
* Forward Jerzy Podbrozny, Poland, a late arrival.

The big-name player in a city with the third-largest Hispanic population in
the United States? Goalkeeper Jorge Campos, who has played just one game, a loss,
in between commitments with the Mexican national team, where he is expected to
start in the World Cup.

Bradley doesn't have a powerhouse, obviously, but he has stressed defense and
the Fire has been respectable in all games this year. He unleashed a surprise
Wednesday, going strongly on the attack against the explosive Galaxy, and the
result was a victory in which the Fire had a solid advantage in play.

Rather than using two forwards, he used all four -- though putting two at the
wings, Klopas and Kosecki, in the 3-5-2 alignment. Razov, recovering from a
shoulder injury, made his first start and set up Kosecki's game-winning goal.

"Am I a genius? There's no such thing," Bradley said. "It's a fine line,
trying to know how to attack and go forward without leaving yourself too wide
open," he told the Chicago Sun-Times. "We felt this was a good opportunity,
playing at home, to put our best attacking players on the field. A lot of came
down to those players accepting the responsibilities to both attack and defend."

Chicago players furthermore take umbrage at references to them as
defensive-oriented. There was nothing different from what we showed in our
other games," Armas said. "We just finished some chances."

A factor in pre-game strategy planning, he also did a brilliant job containing
the Galaxy offensive engine, midfielder Mauricio Cienfuegos.